Our Trip to Boise

We just spent the past four days in Eagle, Idaho, with Mark's extended family celebrating Paul and Jan's 50th wedding anniversary. Mark and I celebrated our 5th anniversary there, too! It was a lot of fun and the first time most of the family were able to meet Henry. We spent a good chunk of time swimming since the weather was hot. Henry's swimming lessons have paid off because each day we were there he became a little braver in the water. Yesterday he was even going down a makeshift slide (a raft held at an angle) into my arms. The rest of the time we shopped at the local farmers market and went out for a nice dinner to celebrate 50 years, which was followed by a party back at Brian and Laura's house.

Congratulations, Paul and Jan!!!!


Mark, Margot,and George

Kristen and Bob

Brian, Laura, Trevor,and Rachel

Here is our swimmer!







Notice the hand in this one...he must be asking "where is it?"



The flight home was a bit rough for Henry. He fell asleep 10 minutes before landing. We went to baggage and Mark picked up the suitcases and car seat and headed over to the lot where our car was parked. Henry and I waited right next to another family that was on our plane. They were waiting to be picked up, too. They also were trying to find their car seat...apparently it hadn't made it on the flight. Since we have an extra one, the one we use for travel, I offered it to her so they could get home. After a short while I realized that I still had the car keys so I called Mark over at the lot. He realized he didn't have the keys as he arrived on the lot. So...I decided to try to take the shuttle with Henry in his stroller to the lot. I made it to the bus and got on, thanks to some very nice people who helped me lift Henry in his stroller into the bus. We got to the lot and Mark was standing right there. As we were about to load the luggage into the car I noticed that the car seat he had picked up at baggage wasn't ours!! So we drove back to the arrival section, I gave the car seat back to the United rep. As it turns out, the seat belonged to the family I was talking with. Our car seat never made it so I filled out a report. Meanwhile, Mark is making another lap around the airport. We finally got home and into bed around midnight!
After Henry and I got off the bus and while Mark was bringing the car over I told Henry that I thought he was fantastic, very patient and adaptable and that we love and appreciate him very much. I said "do you know that we feel this way about you?" and he looked up and me, shook his head up and down once and said "ya". I believe that he understood!

Happy Father's Day!

a year ago today...

WE GOT THE CALL!!!!

For the last six months or so, every time the phone would ring, I would imagine that it would be someone from our agency telling us we were matched with our baby! Well...last night it FINALLY happened! At about 7:40 the phone rang, and we got the news about our little BOY! Yes, Baby Wieds is a little boy!

He is adorable, and it's no surprised that we are completely in LOVE! He was born December 16, 2007, the same birthday as my sister, Kit.
I'll write more details about what happens next soon...

no more helmet!

As of today, Henry will no longer be wearing his helmet. He still has a flat spot, but much of the area around it has reshaped nicely. It really has made a difference. He hasn't said a word about his helmet since our appointment this afternoon. He must be glad it's off because it's starting to get pretty hot out here.

Mark and I are very glad that we had him wear it. It's hard to believe that he had that thing on everyday for the past 5 months. When we first met Henry he liked to touch foreheads with us, but he hasn't been able to do this very well with the helmet. Today, he started leaning in again...then giggling when our foreheads would meet. He's so cute! It's nice to be able to rub his little head again.

Eighteen Months

Our Henry is 18 months today.

He is beginning to talk more and more...doing lots of mimicking of actions and words. He has started repeating words he hears and movements he sees.
He turns his hands over (palm facing up) whenever he hears something like "where is it?" or "what happened?"...plus he gets the cutest questioning expression on his face. It's adorable!

Henry is very attached to his mama...out of the blue he runs up to me, points at my chest and repeats the word "mama" over and over. He was very excited to see his dad when we returned from NY a few days ago. He points to Mark's picture whenever he can and repeatedly says "dada".

Henry is not selfish. He shares with everyone in a room. He'll get up and walk across the room to hand everyone a goldfish cracker if he is eating them. He's the same way with the high five and now, fist bop... he leaves no one out.

When we are doing his shape puzzle, he tries to put the triangle into the square shape, looks at me and shakes his head to let me know it doesn't go there. Then he tries to put it in the oval spot and repeats the same action. I wish you could see his face...it is so expressive! When I give him food that is warm he holds his palm over it and repeatedly moves his hand over the it and says "ot". When Henry wants something and we don't have it for him or want him to have it right away, I say "I'll get it for you in a minute". Apparently I have been holding up one finger when I've said this because this is what Henry now does every time he hears this. Plus, he waits patiently and doesn't ask for what he wants again for a fairly long time.

Henry went to the doctor today and his measurements are exactly the same as they were two months ago: 22 lbs (10th percentile)and 33" (75th percentile). We're supposed to try to get him to eat more fat to gain some pounds, but this is not an easy thing to do. Henry is such a healthy eater.

Henry still tells us to buckle our seat belts when we get into the car, he is starting to learn some of his colors and beginning to add a second syllable to the sounds of some words.

We are all finished with music class for the summer and will begin again in the fall. He enjoyed playing the guitar and piano. He plays the piano with a great deal of thought, touching each of keys individually both soft and hard. He sings and bops his head to country music when we are in the car.

He continues to be very busy all day long! He is the best!

Henry Fest East

We are finally back from our first trip this summer. Mark's high school reunion in Hudson was fun, and then Henry and I continued out to Albany for Henry Fest East. If you don't remember, we called Henry's welcoming party in Milwaukee "Henryfest". Kit and Steve live in Wynantskill, NY, which is just outside of Albany. Henry had a blast getting to know Aunt Kit, Uncle Steve, and cousins Brian and Alex. He also had no problem keeping Neville (the dog) in line.




Henry and Alex really hit it off. Alex introduced him to all kinds of fun things including how to play video games

and the drums.

Before the big event, Kit and I took Henry to Saratoga for the day. We visited the Children's Museum just one block away from Henry Street. The museum was completely "hands-on". One of the stations was a diner. After Henry finished cooking eggs it was time to put them on our plates. He made many attempts to do this with the spatula, then the spoon, and finally, when he had no luck he picked up the pan, brought it over to the plates and tipped the food onto them. This kid is a very good problem solver!



A few days later, Uncle Joe came to town to see all of us. He and Henry had some fun together. The high five is now the fist bop!






The party was a lot of fun. We had delicious food and great entertainment from Steve's band. Henry had some friends to play with while the music played.


He is such a gentleman.

Thanks, Kit and Steve, for the fun week!

still in LA

We were supposed to go to Ohio this morning. Our flight left at 7:20 ....without us. Continental/TSA in LA rules say that baggage must be in TSA's possession for 45 minutes before a flight leaves. It was our turn to check in at about 43 minutes before take off...along with a whole bunch of other people. The computers do something that makes it impossible to get a baggage tag after this amt. of time. We all had to move to the line that would assign us to another flight. We were told to try to go stand-by at the 10:45 flight so we waited...no luck. We befriended two other travelers, one had been trying to get out of LA since the night before. We all are booked on the 11:20 pm flight tonight. Let's hope we make it, especially since all of our luggage is currently in Cleveland.
Henry was a real trooper through all of this. He got up at 5:15, only napped about 30 minutes today, and seemed to enjoy his time in the airport until we got home at 1:30. Mark and I were pooped...but Henry kept going strong.

We're getting ready for Henry's our first big journey of the summer. We're flying to Ohio for Mark's high school reunion on Friday. Then Henry and I will continue on to New York to see Kit's family and my brother Joe. We can't wait! So we're busy packing, making sure we bring everything we'll need. Kit and Steve are hosting Henryfest East, another stop on Henry's '08-'09 World Tour. :-)